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Shocking report: There is a huge racial divide in depression, anxiety sufferers

Young black and hispanic men were significantly less likely than whites to admit that they have a problem, and often refused to seek treatment for it.

One in 10 American men suffer from depression and/or anxiety, but less than half of them seek treatment to deal with the issue — and the differences between races are significant, an alarming new study has found.

The study found that younger blacks, and Hispanics were less likely than young whites to admit that they are struggling, and are less likely to seek help even when they do, based on a poll of 21,000 men by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as reported by HealthDay News.

The findings mean that despite lots of progress in reducing the stigma of mental illnesses such as depression anxiety, there still remains strong resistance among black and Hispanic men that keeps them from seeking treatment, perhaps afraid that it would show weakness.

Stephen Blumberg, the lead author of the study and an associate director for science with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), said the the pressures involve perceptions about masculinity, and have led men of color to deny these feelings.

The survey is based on findings between 2010 and 2013, and were published in the NCHS Data Brief. Specifically, it found that 9 percent of men suffer from depression or anxiety on a daily basis, and that just 41 percent of those sufferers sought treatment.

The study further found that more than 39 percent of the men who were under 45 said they had taken medication or visited a mental health profession in the prior year, which is about the same as the 42 percent of those above 45 who had done the same thing. But when study authors examined those who were 18 to 44 years of age, they found significant racial differences, as just 6 percent of younger black and Hispanic men reported daily anxiety of depression, compared to 8 percent for younger white men. And just 26 percent of young men of color who had experienced anxiety or depression were likely to have accessed treatment, compared to 45 percent for young white males. Such a racial divide isn’t seen above age 44.